Bedford Public Library

In the kingdom of ice, the grand and terrible polar voyage of the U.S.S. Jeannette, Hampton Sides

eng

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In the kingdom of ice

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881445766

Hampton Sides

the grand and terrible polar voyage of the U.S.S. Jeannette

In the late nineteenth century, people were obsessed by one of the last unmapped areas of the globe: the North Pole. James Gordon Bennett, Jr., the stupendously wealthy owner of The New York Herald, funded an official U.S. naval expedition to reach the Pole, choosing as its leader a young officer named George Washington De Long. On July 8, 1879, the USS Jeannette set sail with De Long leading a team of thirty-two men deep into uncharted waters. After journeying north of the Bering Strait, they found themselves trapped in pack ice. Two years into the harrowing voyage, the hull was fatally breached, and the Jeannette sank to the bottom of the Arctic Ocean, marooning the men on an ice cap. Thus began their long, fateful march across the frozen sea - an ordeal that ranks as one of the greatest struggles for survival in history. Facing everything from snow blindness and frost bite to ferocious storms and bewildering labyrinths of ice, the expedition battled madness and starvation as they desperately strove for the Siberian coast

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